, (JnsMir'aficn 




cSnhttick Mrevot li^iU 




Class 
Book. 



E}tS± 



GopyrightN^. 






COPYRIGHT DEPOSnV 



tinrnln'fl 
Cnjarij of 3iiu5piratiuit 



BOOKS BY 
THE SAME AUTHOR 



On the Trail or Washington 

Lincoln the Lawyer 

The Story of a Street 

Decisive Battles of the Law 

The Accomplice 

The Web 

The Minority 

The Care of Estates 

The Case and Exceptions 




" The Boy Lincoln " 

BY EASTMAN JOHNSON 

From a Pastel in the Possession of Berea College 



of Sn^piration 



By 

I'ur.Dr.KK K Tkkvok II hi 

Authup of 
"Lincoln the Lauyer," Etc. 




fri:dkrick a. stokks comi'anv 

Ni:\V YORK 1>L BLISHERS 






Copyright, 1909, bv 
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 



Copyright, 1909, by 
THE NEW YORK TIMES CO. 



248668 




October, 1909 



PllEFATOIlY NOTE 

These papers were originally printed in the 
New York Times, February 1st to 7th, 1909, and 
formed the basis of a prize competition among the 
school children of New York and vicinity, in 
lionor of the hundredth anniversary of Lincoln's 
birtii. IJy the terms of the contest each competitor 
%vas required to write a composition grounded ex- 
clusively on these essays which aroused unusual 
interest from the moment of their appearance and 
attracted increasing attention with every issue. 

Fully ten thousand comj)ositions based upon 
tlniii were sul)mitt<d to the Times by the students 
in the })ublic and j)rivate schools in New York 
City alone, and it is estimated that no less than 
twenty-five thousand were writtt ii while the orig- 
inal studies herein ])resented were widely read by 
the general public throughout the country. 

In l'hil:ulelj)hia a similar contest was held under 
the aus))ices of the IjCdger, and there five thou- 
sand comjKvsitions were actually submitted by the 
students, and probably double that number were 
written. 

— The PrnLisiiEus. 



ti]p mrmorg of 

my 

JF a t li r r a n ii fB n 1 1| r r 



(Cmitrutj 



rriEFATOKY Note vii 

first 

I'OU THE DlSHEAllTENEI) IN I.IFLS HANDICAP 1 

ScconD 

For the Untalenteu Majority ... 10 

I'oR Those who CIrope in the Dist or 

Dei EAT 18 

J^ourtb 

For Those who Strive for Ideals in their 

Work 26 



JTiftfi 



For Those who Make the Lonely Fight 
FOR Principles 34 



@i£tl) 



For Public Servants and Private Citi- 
zens 43 

©etientj) 

For Men of Common Mold 52 



tiurnln'fl 
Inuirii nf 3lu'-iptrattnn 



Lincoln's Legacy of 
Inspiration. 



I()l( 'i'HK DISIII.AirriAKI) IN' LITE'S 
HANDICAP 

FKOM tlir standpoint of history a 
century is hut a yesterday, and a 
hundred years ha\e not (juite 
passed since .\hrahani Lincohi was horn. 
Vet already tradition, euh)^ry^ and ro- 
mance are hiisy with his memory, wcav- 
luL,^ tlie mantle of n;rcatness ahout him in 
such fa.sIiion tliat all the ru^^^a'd outline 
of his very human personality may soon 
he shrouded from our view and the man 
himself translated to the realm of lie roes 
whose development Is a mystery and 
^^hose achievements are the despair of all 
ordinarv mortals. 

[1] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

There is very little incentive in the ca- 
reer of any man whose success is inex- 
plicable. Marvelously endowed individ- 
uals may excite our admiration or our 
wonder, but they do not afford much in- 
spiration for the rank and file of strug- 
gling humanity. 

But Lincoln was neither a heaven-born 
genius nor the miraculous product of 
chance. His lot was cast not among the 
favored few, but among men of common 
mold, and his life was lived, in no small 
measure, for the benefit and encourage- 
ment of his fellow-countrymen of average 
ability and ordinary calibre. 

There is nothing obscure about his de- 
velopment. All his achievements can be 
readily understood. They were the di- 
rect results of a mental and moral dis- 
cipline and training to which any manly- 
minded man may subject himself; not 
with the same political results, it is true, 
but with lasting benefit to himself and 
corresponding advantage to the commu- 
nity of which he may be a member. 

[2] 



SOMETHING MADE FROM NOTHING 

The results in Lincoln's case are for 
}iist(My and the historian; the processes 
])y ^\liic*h lie arrived at those results are 
for the individual — for the Ijy-and-large 
of ^Vmerican citizens. 

Few aVniericans of this day and genera- 
tion hegin life with the forlorn outlook 
^\■llIc•h greeted IJncoln at his hirth. It is 
^vell-nigh ini})ossihle to exagi^eratc the 
adverse conditions which surrounded him. 
'J'he cahin where he lirst saw the light was 
not much more than a ANoodman's shack, 
^\ith a flooring of hard earth, devoid of 
most of the comforts and many of the 
decencies of life. The land ahout it 
A\as j)i'actically an unreclaimed Nvild( rncss; 
the \\hole countryside was lonely to the 
])oint of desolation; each day \sas a dreary 
struggle for food. From almost every 
aspect ])overty was his ])ortion. it was 
not degrading })overty, hecause it \\as not 
dependent, hut it was the sort that weak- 
ens self-res])cct and affords no ])ros})ect 
of escape. 

But material j)()vertv was not his most 
[3]' 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

discouraging inheritance. His mother un- 
doubtedly did her best to kindle a spark 
of ambition in her son, but she was an un- 
educated, delicate, and even sickly house- 
drudge, who died while he was still a child, 
leaving him prone to the suspicion that he 
had an inherited tendency to consumption. 
His father was an illiterate, shiftless 
farmer and carpenter, without skill or 
training at either calling, who regarded 
education as a waste of time, and would 
not permit the boy to attend school ex- 
cept at rare intervals. Indeed, the only 
effort he made to instruct his son was a 
half-hearted attempt to teach him carpen- 
try, which was soon abandoned when he 
found that he could hire him out to other 
farmers in need of an extra hand. 

Uninspiring as his home influence was, 
that of the neighborhood was even more 
so. There was practically nothing in his 
surroundings in Kentucky, or at Gentry- 
ville, Indiana, w^here he lived after his 
mother's death, to touch the imagination 
of a growing boy or quicken his ambition. 

[4] 



SOMETHING MADE FROM NOTHING 

The country was sparsely settled and the 
life was not really living — it was an ani- 
mal-like existence. Surely no .Vmerican 
ever had lx?tter reason to complain of his 
chance in life. It was not a fair chance. 
It was practically no chance at all. But 
Lincohi was searching i'or ()p])ortunities, 
not excuses, and he foui^d what he was 
secjdftg. 

This was not the result of luck or favor 
or any consciousness of (hnming powers. 
He was no inspired dreamer, who, in the 
midst of hard realities, saw a vision of 
coming greatness. He lived, not in the 
future, hut one day at a time, and neither 
during this nor at any other j)eriod of liis 
lii'e did Lincoln ever hurrw lie had 
common sense enough to realize that his 
chance of advancement lay in education, 
and, instead of fretting over the disad- 
vantages under which he labored, he en- 
deavored to t)vercome them. Thus, while 
lie performed the dull, n^itlne tasks a]>out 
liis father's house and farm he accpiired 
the hahit of thinking of others rather than 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

of himself, until the neighbors gradually 
came to recognize that he was one of the 
few persons in the community who could 
be confidently relied upon for every sort 
of friendly office and kindness, from 
roofing a barn to rocking a baby. 

This was a very modest distinction, but 
it was quite as rare then as it is to-day, 
and though what he did was done without 
thought of a return, it brought its own 
reward. People took an interest in this 
unostentatious, unselfish boy, and they 
loaned him their books with such freedom 
that he soon secured all that were avail- 
able within a radius of many miles. It 
was no anointed youth, however, who 
pored over those volumes by the light of 
his father's fire, but a very practical 
young man, who kept his ambitions well 
within bounds and was satisfied to pro- 
gress step by step. Once he accidentally 
injured one of the borrowed books, and 
when the not too generous lender de- 
manded compensation, he worked out the 
damages at twenty-five cents a day in no 



SOMETIIIXG MADE TROM NOTHING 

saint-like spirit, but as a matter of justice, 
and this — one of the few well-authenti- 
cated stories of his early life — affords a 
clear f(lini})se of tlie man in the making. 

Those who ])icture Lincoln as a pre- 
cocious youtli of auL^clic disposition do 
not understand his cliaracter at all. lie 
was no more fond of hard ^v()rk than 
other ])oys of his age, and lie amused 
liimself whenever he had the chance. Eut 
lie did not waste his time. Dull as Gen- 
tryville, Indiana, ^^as, it had one red- 
letter day on its caUndar. and that was 
the meeting of the Circuit Court at 
]^)onville. tiCtccn miles aN\ay. Thither 
Tinc(jln ti'udgcd to listen \\ith ra])t at- 
tention to the harangues ni' the hack- 
woods lawyers, and watch ^sith keen in- 
terest the drama of life as it was por- 
trayed on that mimic stage, and there he 
douhtlcss received the first impulse to fit 
himscir for the ])rofession of the law. 

JUit this dream made him neither dis- 
contented nor restless. The idea of 
abandoning his home duties never crossed 
[7] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

his mind. Unquestionably he could have 
bettered his chances at that period had 
he followed his dawning ambitions in- 
stead of continuing to help his father 
amid discouraging surroundings and diffi- 
culties. Yet he remained at home and 
gave his family the benefit of his services 
until he was twenty-one, up to which time 
he had earned practically nothing for 
himself. 

But from nothing Lincoln was slowly 
but surely making something, and that 
something was character. From depriva- 
tion and want he was evolving helpful- 
ness and unselfishness; from lack of op- 
portunities he was developing modesty 
and resourcefulness; from sorrow and 
neglect he was acquiring sympathy; from 
solitude and simplicity he was learning 
the value of truth. For despondency and 
discontent he was fashioning humor; for 
lack of book learning he was providing 
a thorough knowledge of men; for luck 
and favor he was substituting courage. 

" The little farm that raised a man " 

[8] 



SOMETHING MADE FROM NOTHING 

was not enchanted ground. The seeds 
that were sowed there are within the reach 
of alL ^Abraham IJncoln is an inspiring 
product of tlie soil. He is a prophecy 
for tliose wlio beheve in tlieir native land. 



19] 



®econD 

FOR THE UNTALENTED MAJORITY 

IT has been truly said of Lincoln that 
" he never finished his education " and 
that to the close of his life he was 
" a learner, an inquirer, a searcher after 
knowledge — never afraid of asking ques- 
tions — never too dignified to admit that he 
did not know." 

The whole of Lincoln's schooling 
amounted to less than a year in all, and 
the little instruction he received from the 
five schoolmasters, each of whom taught 
him for a few weeks at long intervals 
during his boyhood, was extremely ele- 
mentary. He may, therefore, fairly be said 
to have educated himself, and of this edu- 
cation came a man who divined all the 
underlying motives of the human heart, 
who "with sincerity deceived the deceit- 
ful," and who passed through the fiercest 

[lOj 



STRUGGLING UPWARD 

of political controversies without leaving 
one word of offense for even the bitter- 
est of liis foes. 

His reading was directed by chance 
rather than by selection, and to what ex- 
tent lie was influenced by the books which 
he eagerly borrowed is an open question. 
Certainly the well-known list of those that 
first fell into his hands comi)rises a 
strange assortment — " ^T^sop's Fables," 
and the " lUvised Statutes of Indiana," 
"Pilgrim's Progress," and Weems's pre- 
posterous ''Life of Washington," "Rob- 
inson Crusoe," the l^ii)le, and a history of 
the United States. These and other vol- 
umes he read at every opportunity; 
sometimes ^\hiIc walking to and i'rom his 
work; sometimes in the woods and fields 
while resting from the ax and ])low, and 
often in his home at nights. Here, too, he 
practiced writing, and worked out sums 
on the \\()(K]en flre shovel in default of a 
slate, making the best of things and care- 
fully husbanding his slim resources. 

It was no brilliant student who thus de- 
[11] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

voted himself to acquiring the rudiments 
of education, but a patient, painstaking 
and somewhat plodding boy, for Lincoln's 
mind matured very slowly. Indeed, he 
did not show any signs of promise until 
he was about eighteen, and even in the 
prime of life his intellectual processes 
were far from quick. His mind, he re- 
marked, was like a piece of steel — very 
hard to scratch, but almost impossible to 
free of any mark once made upon it. 
Those who have had the benefit of good 
instruction and understand proper meth- 
ods of study can scarcely conceive the 
difficulties under which such a boy would 
labor in acquiring knowledge without as- 
sistance. A severer discipline can hardly 
be imagined. 

His slowness and lack of guidance had, 
however, the advantage of making Lin- 
coln thorough. He never was sure that 
he knew anything unless he understood it 
perfectly. We have his own statement 
that to comprehend the meaning of the 
word "demonstrate" he worked until he 

[12] 



STRUGGLING UPWARD 

liar] mastered the six books of Euclid, and 
this was long after his boyhood days. In- 
deed, there never was a man more famil- 
iar with the pains and woes of mental 
drudgery than Lincoln, and it retjuired 
real courage to kcc]) him at his task, for 
he was not fond of study for its own sake. 
Neither was he natiir;illy thorough or 
methodical. On the contrary he was in- 
clined to disorderly habits and slij)shod 
methods, some of which he never outgrew, 
and at first he attempted to clip corners 
and find short cuts to learning (piite as 
often and as hopefully as other boys have 
done. Indeed, it was only through re- 
peated faihu'c that he learned that it was 
impossible for him to ac(iuirc anything 
except at the price of good bard work. 
Even when he bci^an to study law he had 
a fleeting hope that his knack of speech- 
making would relieve him from the 
drudgery of the ])rofession, only to con- 
fess, before many years had passed, that 
any one who relied on such an exemption 
was " a failure in advance." 

[13] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

Americans are said to admire smart- 
ness, sharpness, and showy traits of mind, 
but these qualities were all conspicuously 
lacking in Lincoln. He could, upon oc- 
casion, make a bright reply or a neat re- 
tort, but as a rule he required time and 
careful preparation to appear at an ad- 
vantage, and he was often painfully slow 
in making up his mind. Perfectly aware 
of these limitations, he concentrated all his 
eiforts upon discovering the real issue or 
point in any subject and mastering that 
to the exclusion of details, and of this 
training came one of the most pitiless 
analyzers of facts, one of the soundest 
logicians, and one of the keenest trailers 
of truth that the world has ever known. 
This was not, however, solely or even 
largely, the result of his application to 
books. He had neither the tastes nor 
the opportunities of a book-worm. He 
preferred the company of his fellow men, 
and from them he learned far more than 
he did from any printed page. He was 
not, however, what is generally known as 

[14] 



STRUGGLING UPWARD 

a student of human nature. Probably it 
never oecurred to him to dissect and ex- 
amine critically the minds and characters 
ol' his acquaintances and i'riends. \ever- 
theless, lie Avas a close and accurate ob- 
server, and by mixing freely with all sorts 
and conditions of men he acquired a re- 
markable knowledge of humanity. In 
the discussions at the country store at Sa- 
lem, and at other local forums, he discov- 
ered that the man ol' moderate attain- 
ments, who was truthful and sincere, 
often had his mental su])eri()rs at a de- 
cided disadvantage, and early in his ca- 
reer he schooled himself against exagger- 
ation and overstatement of every kind. 

To ])reseMt I'aets clearly, concisely and 
effectively, without taking undue achan- 
tagc of them, is no mean accom])lisliment. 
It re(|uires not only ability and courage, 
but tact and character, and in Lincoln's 
hands it became both a shield of defense 
and a wea])on of attack. lie neither de- 
ceived himself nor allowed others to de- 
ceive him, and he honestlv and fairly 

[15] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

looked on all sides of every question be- 
fore making up his mind. This not only 
rendered him sure of his own ground and 
tolerant of the opinions of others, but 
gave him a knowledge of his adversaries' 
resources which was invaluable in time of 
need. 

As a result, we have his own state- 
ment that in all his experience as a lawyer 
he was never once surprised by the 
strength of an opponent's case, and fre- 
quently found it much weaker than he 
feared. In like manner, during the con- 
test over slavery, he so thoroughly mas- 
tered the arguments of those who differed 
with him that he was often able to turn 
them to his own advantage, forcing his 
great rival Douglas to confess that he had 
given him more trouble than all the Aboli- 
tionists together. 

It is surprising how few people do 
their own thinking. Most men try to 
learn what the majority think and adopt 
its opinions. Some attempt to be orig- 
inal by searching out the popular view 
[16] 



STRUGGLING UPWARD 

and takinnr exactly the opposite. But 
Lincoln did not feel compelled to think 
as others thought, nor did he try to 
attract attention to himself hy airing 
" (lueer '' o])inions. He endeavored to dis- 
cover the truth about everythincr and 
to think accordingly, and to this end he 
cultivated sincerity; he brought himself 
into close contact and sympathy with his 
fellow men; he was honest in tiiought as 
well as in action; he made no claims to 
superior wisdom; he respected the mo- 
tives of those whose conclusions he could 
not accept. He was as fair to others as 
to himself, seeking only the right as God 
gave liim to see the right. 

It \\as these (pialities of the heart 
rather than of the hrain that started Lin- 
coln on liis distinguished career. He was 
neither an intellectual giant nor a learned 
ni;in. Urom his success all his fellow 
countrymen of modest abilities may take 
couraiie and incentive. 



ri7i 



CfiirD 

FOR THOSE WHO GROPE IN THE DUST 
OF DEFEAT 

IINCOLN'S development is not in- 
frequently described as though 
^ it were the progressive triumph 
of a man — something more than mortal — 
who, though acquainted with poverty and 
misfortune in his childhood, took ad- 
vantage of his first opportunity in life, 
and whose career thereafter steadily 
spelled success. This man of fixed pur- 
pose and indomitable will undoubtedly 
makes a stirring appeal as a hero, but he 
has nothing in common with those who, 
after repeated attempts to "find them- 
selves," discover failure staring them in 
the face. As a matter of fact, however, 
the whole of Lincoln's early manhood is a 
record of failure from a material point of 
view, and few men have ever had less to 

[18] 



MAKING A LIFE AND A LIVING 

show for tlieir first years of effort than 
he had at the age of twenty-four. 

As a field lahorer he was far from a 
success, for he took no interest in farm- 
ing and never cared to work at it a day 
longer than was necessary to put him- 
self in funds. Moreover, his employers 
looked decidedly askance at the "hired 
man " who read as he followed the plow, 
even if his furrows did run true. 

^Vs a clerk in Offutt's country store he 
did little hcttcr, and Ik yond the fact that 
he served the cuslonicrs conscientiously 
witli full weights and measures, he did 
nothing to j)r()ve himscir indis])cnsal)le. 
Neither his lieart nor his mind was in his 
work, and he \\atfhi'(l tlic business "wink 
out " with no ])erceptihle regret. 

Then he sought glory at the cannon's 
mouth in the farcical " l^laek I lawk war," 
"where he never even saw an Indian, and 
where tlie *' bloody encounters witli the 
moscjuitoes " and the " fierce charges on 
the wild onions " were the most glorious 
episodes of the cam])aign! Then, some- 
[19] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

what as a forlorn hope, he turned to po- 
htical life, presenting himself as a can- 
didate for the Legislature, only to meet 
with defeat and to find himself at the 
end of several profitless months utterly- 
destitute of resources. 

This was not a very promising record 
for a man of twenty-three. He had, it 
is true, steadily cherished a more or less 
vague idea of becoming a lawyer, but he 
had not pursued it systematically, and 
he finally drifted back into the grocery 
business, this time as part proprietor of 
a store bought on credit without much 
prospect of making the venture pay. In- 
deed, the manner in which he and his 
associate Berry conducted this enterprise 
almost insured its failure, for the senior 
member of the firm idled away his days 
in dissolute living, while the junior mem- 
ber studied law, and between them their 
slender stock of merchandise disappeared, 
Berry drinking and Lincoln eating it up. 

There is a story, which has at least the 
authenticity of being in character, that 

[20] 



MAKING A LIFE AND A LIVING 

affords an excellent illustration of Lin- 
coln's attitude toward his business. Ac- 
cording to this tale a customer once dis- 
turbed Lincoln at his reading by entering 
the store and rc(|uesting five cents' worth 
of crackers. Lincoln laid aside his book 
and, mechanically com])lying witli the de- 
mand, awaited payment; but the customer 
changed his mind, remarking that he 
thought he would take a glass of cider in- 
stead, if it was the same ])ricc. IJncoln 
swe|)t the crackers back into a ])aiTcl 
and prodncfd the cider, which the man 
])romj)tly drank, and then started for the 
door. ^\t this point the store-keeping 
student of law, ^\ith his liand reacliing 
for his l^hickstone, roused himself suf- 
ficiently to remind the customer that he 
had not ])aid. 

" A\'hy, I gave you five cents' worth of 
crackers, didn't I?" demanded tlie ])ur- 
chaser. "Yes," admitted Lincoln, ''but 
you didn't ]^ay for them." " Well, I 
didn't get them, did I?" was the retort, 
and the man who was one dav to become 
[21] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

a master of logic resumed his book with 
a vague f eehng that there was something 
not quite right with the transaction, but 
just what it was he had not time to puzzle 
out. Such was Lincoln, the merchant, 
and his career in that capacity soon came 
to an inglorious close. 

By this time he was four and twenty, 
and he had not only not succeeded, but 
had given no evidence of stability and no 
indication whatever of aptitude for any 
line of work. Those who have fretted 
over the waste of time spent upon uncon- 
genial tasks can realize the discourage- 
ment which confronted him at this crisis 
of his affairs, for he had not only failed 
to fit himself for the bar, but had com- 
pletely bankrupted himself. 

For the penniless man bankruptcy is 
said to have no terrors. But it was not 
so with Lincoln. It provided him with 
as sore a business temptation as ever con- 
fronted a man on the threshold of life, 
and subjected his sense of honor to a 
thoroughly practical test. 

[22] 



MAKING A LIFE AND A LIVING 

Eulogy has robbed Lincoln's honesty 
of nearly all its human quality. lie has 
been presented so often in the role of the 
perfect man, with even a touch of divinity 
added, that all real analogy between 
his experiences and those of tlie modern 
business world has ])ractically vanished. 
And \ct it was a man of ordinary chiy, 
with every reason for wishing to make his 
way in the world, who saw the ruin of all 
his hopes in tlie failure of lierry »Sc Lin- 
coln's store, for he and his partner had 
given promissory notrs for tiie purchase 
price of the business in whicli tliey had 
invested, and when Ikrry died all the 
holders of these notes looked to Lincoln 
I'or j)aynicnt. Lliis would have been bad 
enougli if the claimants had been the j)er- 
sons to whom he and his associate had 
originally obligated themselves, but those 
j)eople bad long since disposed of the 
notes for a IVaetion of tbeir face value. 

Men who lK)ught j)aper of this descrip- 
tion in the early days of Illinois usually 
sold it again at the first opportunity or 

[23] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

traded it for something else, and thus 
it passed from hand to hand until some 
speculator, who had acquired it for noth- 
ing, or next to nothing, appeared and 
demanded the uttermost farthing. Nat- 
urally this dubious business encouraged 
the evasion of such debts, and public 
opinion countenanced repudiation under 
the circumstances, so there would have 
been few to criticise Lincoln had he 
avoided payment and there w ere not many 
who saw much merit in what he did. 

From a worldly point of view, repudia- 
tion was the only course to adopt, unless 
he was prepared to mortgage his earnings 
and handicap if not defeat his ambitions. 
It was easy to argue that the business 
had never been worth anything, and that 
the original owners having voluntarily 
sold Berry & Lincoln's notes for a song, 
had received their full due and that those 
who had paid little or nothing for them 
ought not to be allowed to profit by a 
transaction which, if not usurious, was 
not much more respectable. There was 

[24] 



MAKING A LIFE AND A LIVING 

every incentive for Lincoln to adopt this 
view. Eut to him a promise was a prom- 
ise, and as a matter of self-respect, and 
not at all as a heroic act of virtue, he re- 
fused to compromise with his conscience 
and declined to deceive himself with " law 
honesty." 

Jt ^^as no saint wlio thus met the de- 
mands of his creditors and hampered 
Iiimself for fourteen years while he dis- 
charged ^\ hat he called his " National 
deht/' Not a saint at all — hut a man who 
knew that " xou cannot cheat at solitaire 
and think you've won the game.'' 

Lincoln did not sprini^ fully armed into 
the contest in which he made history. 
Lor many a year hd'ore he worked his 
^\ay into the j)rofession of the law, he 
had a i)art with tliose wlio despair of ever 
finding their place in the world and are 
temj)ted to dishonoring expedients. 

His message to his eagerly striving 
countrymen of the present generation is 
that it is " ])etter to make a life than a 
living." 

[25] 



JTourtfi 

FOR THOSE WHO STRIVE FOR IDEALS 
IN THEIR WORK 

IINCOLN did not awake to find 
himself famous in the ranks of 
^ his chosen profession of the law. 
His uncouth appearance was not in his 
favor, and he had many other defects that 
militated against his success. In all the 
neat and methodical habits which charac- 
terize the precise attorney he was woefully 
deficient. He hated the drudgery and 
the technicalities of his calling. He 
thoroughly despised the tricks of his 
trade. Nevertheless, he indignantly re- 
pudiated the idea that honesty was not 
compatible mth practical service at the 
bar. "Let no young man choosing the 
law for his 'profession yield for one mo- 
ment to that popular belief" he declared. 
"If you do not believe that you can be 

[26] 



HONOR AND "LAW HONESTY" 

an honest Umijcr, resolve to he honest 
id thou t being a laicyer. Choose some 
other occupation rather than one in the 
choosing of tchich ijou do in advance con- 
fess ijourself to he a knave/' 

This ^vas not tlie advice of a tyro or an 
idealist, Ijiit of an experienced practi- 
tioner, Avho had demonstrated the truth 
of his assertion that '' as a peacemaker 
the laicj/er has a superior op port unit f/ of 
jjroving Jiinisclf a good man/' if he cares 
to make the most of it. 

But thoiii^di lie resj)ectcd and honored 
his profession, l^inccjln had no reverence 
i'or law merely ])ecause it was law. Again 
and a,LiaIn duiInL; his lon^' training in the 
courts he refused to invoke statutes at 
the exj)cnse of justice, even in the inter- 
est of his clients. He i)racticed law — he 
did not ])racti(r on law. 

To the insolvent debtor ^vho desired 
him to de\ ise a ne\\ ^vay of ])aying old 
debts he turned a deaf ear; to the rapa- 
cious creditor ^vho sought his assistance in 
seeming his pound of flesh he gave the 
[ '^'7 ] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

free advice that he had better try his hand 
at making money some other way; to a 
jury in a case where two young men were 
attempting to get rid of their honest obli- 
gation by claiming to be a few days under 
age he made a passionate plea that they 
should not help the delinquents to take 
advantage of the law and place a stain of 
dishonor upon themselves which they 
would never afterward be able to remove ; 
to the Judge who forbade him to aban- 
don a client in the midst of a case after 
he had discovered that the man had been 
guilty of fraud, he sent back this mes- 
sage, " Tell the Judge that my hands are 
dirty and that I've gone away to wash 
them/' 

Lincoln was certainly a poor business 
man if the criterion of success be the 
making of money. For this he cared 
little or nothing. '' Wealth/' he observed, 
'^ is merely a superfluity of things we 
don't need." He had no skill in making 
up his charges — no knack of keeping his 
clients in the courts. Indeed, his opinions 

[28] 



HONOR AXD " LAW HONESTY " 

on this subject were exceedingly objec- 
tionable to greedier members of the pro- 
fession. " Discouraire litigation'' was 
his advice to lawyers. ''Persuade your 
neighbors to eompromise tchenever j/oii 
can. Point out to them lioic the nominal 
li'inncr is often the real loser — //? fees, 
expenses and tiaste of time. Xever stir 
vp litigation. A icorse man ean scaree!// 
he found than one xcho does this. .1 
moral tone oua;ht to he infused into the 
profession nJiich should drive such men 
out of it." Jjiicnln may have been, and 
undoubtedly was, utterly lacking in all 
the essentials of commercial genius, but 
in this instance he was merely ahead of 
his tliiK". The methods he ad\ocate(l 
sixty years ago are those of the most suc- 
cessful ])ractitioners of to-day. 

It was neither briUiancy nor learning 
that made Lincoln an eUVctive lawyer. 
He ^\•as not only not a profound student 
of the law, he was not, in any scholarly 
sense, a student at all. He schooled him- 
self in the great fundamental principles 
[ ^^0 ] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

of the common law of England and ap- 
plied them with such clarity that even 
the dullest layman could not fail to com- 
prehend the point. His mind was 
orderly, though his habits were not, and 
knowing that the issue in most controver- 
sies lies in very narrow compass, he 
avoided the error of the mediocre advo- 
cate, who is easily diverted by details, and 
pressed steadily and directly to the heart 
of his case, disregarding all the academic 
pros and cons and reducing the problem 
to its simplest form. 

Absolutely sincere himself, he found 
little difficulty in persuading others, and 
his logical mind marshaled facts in such 
orderly sequence that a child could follow 
him through the most complicated cause. 
In a word, Lincoln relied on the truth, 
knew how to tell it, and was not afraid 
to do so, and his statement of facts thus 
had the force of argument. The average 
practitioner has neither the courage nor 
the skill to accomplish this, and his omis- 
sions and perversions naturally reflect on 

[30] 



HONOR AND " LAW HONESTY " 

his honesty or sincerity. This is largely 
the secret of Lincoln's success in the 
courts, and it defines his limitations. To 
be effective he had to believe in the cause 
he espoused, and lie would not willingly 
undertake a case of whose merits he him- 
self was not cnn\'inccd. " You speak to 
the jurify' he once entreated liis associate 
counsel; "if I sajj a xcord thcji xcill see 
from ?/?// fare that the man is i^uiltij and 
eonvict l/ini/' 

There were many at the Illinois 1)ar who 
were more ^^i(ic•Iy read lawyers than Lin- 
coln, many \\]u) liad more elocjuenec at 
their command, I'ar hitter presence, and 
no less exj)erienee. Tiiere were also many 
*' liml)s of llie la\v " better Mrsed in the 
refinements of pleading and the (juibbles 
and technicalities of j)raetiee than lie was. 
Prob;d)l\' all sueli [)etty tricksters could 
liave caught liim trij)ping in their nets, 
and some of them did. ]5ut it is for 
every ])ractitioner at the bar to decide for 
himself what manner of lawyer he shall 
be. He mav join the ranks of the sl\' and 
[31] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

shifty gentry who work by indirection; he 
may fit himself for the role of the legal 
bravo who can be hired to prosecute or de- 
fend any cause at a price; he may herd 
with the legal def eaters of the law; he 
may specialize in any one of a thousand 
like activities, — or he may follow the 
trail which Abraham Lincoln blazed. 

During all his three and twenty years 
of active practice Lincoln never found 
it necessary to sacrifice his conscience to a 
code; he never surrendered his private 
principles for personal gain; his services 
were constantly in demand, but they were 
never for sale ; he served hundreds of cli- 
ents, but was owned by none ; his ideas of 
justice and honor were not regulated by 
the latest decisions; he recognized some- 
thing higher than the judgment of a court 
of last resort. Yet he was neither an im- 
practical dreamer nor a god. For almost 
a quarter of a century he supported him- 
self and his family from his earnings as a 
lawyer, and yet throughout this long ex- 
perience he practiced his profession unde- 

[32] 



HONOR AND " LAW HONESTY " 

ceivcd ])y its sophistries and unswcrved by 
its manifold temptations, believing always 
in its Iiigbest possibilities. 

There is soniethinnr radically wrong 
with ideals which cannot be u])licld in the 
workshoi)s of the world. Sentimental 
ideas are often mistaken for ideals, but 
men of character ciuickly distinguish be- 
tween the real and the sham, and sound 
ideals do nr)t suffer at their hands. 

Lincohi tested tlie ideals of Ills calling 
and ])r()\i(l them to be j)ractical. That 
alone entiths him to the thanks of every 
honest member of the bar. lie is the 
supj)ort and Insj)iration of all who desire 
to make the honorable ])rofession of the 
la^^• \V()i-lhv ol' its name. 



[ 3S ] 



Sitth 

FOR THOSE WHO MAKE THE LONELY 
FIGHT FOR PRINCIPLES 

THE interest and importance of 
Lincoln's career as President 
have naturally created the im- 
pression that his hfe was largely devoted 
to politics and that he was an extraordi- 
narily successful politician. The truth 
is, however, that he spent comparatively 
little of his time in the political arena 
prior to the civil war, and his record there 
was mainly a series of disappointments 
and defeats. He served four consecu- 
tive terms in the Illinois Legislature dur- 
ing his early years, and one term in Con- 
gress, but that was his entire experience 
as an officeholder. The explanation of 
this is apparent upon the surface. He 
was not regarded as a " practical " poli- 
tician or a generally available candidate. 

[34] 



FAILURES THAT SLXCEEDED 

Party rule and discipline had not been 
effected in Illinois when he first entered 
the political field. The nominations for 
office were not made by conventions, and 
any man who chose to present himself as 
a candidate could do so by the simple ex- 
pedient of announcing that fact and stat- 
ing his individual opinions concerning the 
(|ucstions of the day. The " machine " 
and " the ])oss " as they now exist were 
j)ractically unknown. Nevertheless there 
were even th( fi ])artisan cliciues and lead- 
ers who made their influence felt, and 
Lincoln had not been long in oilice before 
lie asserted his independence of them and 
braved the displeasure of the ])ubhc. 

In his twenty-eighth year the Illinois 
Legislature passed a series of resolutions 
condenuiing the formation of .Abobtion- 
ist societies, u])holding the '' sacred " right 
of ])r()j)erty in slaves, and declaring 
against abolishing slavery in the District 
of Columbia. This was entirely in ac- 
cordance with the prevailing sentiment in 
the State at the time, and anv young leg- 

[35] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

islator who opposed it did so at his peril. 
Of this Lincoln was fully aware, and 
with every reason for wishing to avoid in- 
juring his political future, he might well 
have been content to cast an inconspicu- 
ous negative vote. A prudent politician, 
conscientiously opposed to the resolutions, 
would undoubtedly have adopted this 
course, but Lincoln proceeded to demon- 
strate that he was neither a prudent nor a 
" practical " politician by not' only voting 
against the measure but also attempting 
to induce his associates to subscribe to a 
WTitten protest against the action of the 
majority. It was a very cautious and 
inoffensive document which he prepared, 
but it was sufficiently alarming to be al- 
most unanimously rejected. Indeed, only 
one other man had the temerity to put 
his name to the paper, but despite this, 
its sponsor had it spread in full upon the 
records. 

In this action Lincoln's whole political 
career is plainly foreshadowed. Where 
principles were at stake he had no pru- 
[36] 



FAILURES THAT SLXCEEDED 

dence and knew no fear. Balzac says 
that the wiliest politician is he who, swim- 
ming in the river of events, keeps his head 
abo\e the surface and, floating with the 
current, appears to <i:ui(le its course. 
From this viewpoint Lincoln has no 
standing as a ])olitician at all, for lie 
never |)ernilltc(l himself to l)e carried n\ ith 
the tide of ])()pular oj)inion unless it 
tended in the direction of his goal. 

During the war with Mexico, when the 
whole country was allanic ^\ith military 
ardor and lhl^h(•d with the lirilhant 
achievements of our arms, he rose in Con- 
gress and denounced the war as utterly 
mi justifiahle. \\'orse ])olitics th;in this 
can scai'eely he imagined. Tor ci-itleism of 
one's country in time of war is popularly 
regarded nr)t oidy as unpatriotic, hut posi- 
tively traitorous, and he who attemj)ts it 
has little knowledge of human nature if 
he hopes for e\en a resjjeetfid liearing. 
Lincoln certaiidy had no illusions con- 
cerning the clfcet ol' liis attitude, ])ut 
lirmlv and rightlv believing tliat the in- 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

vasion of Mexico was an attempt to ex- 
tend the boundaries of slavery, he refused 
to be silenced by the roar of the conquer- 
ing cannon or the enthusiastic cheers. 
To the slogan, " Our country, right or 
wrong!" he preferred "Our country 
when right, to be kept right; when 
wrong, to be put right." But this, to 
the practical politician, was displaying, 
not the courage, but " the foolhardiness 
of his opinions," and there was much 
wagging of wise heads when he was re- 
tired to private life, from which he him- 
self never expected to emerge. 

Those who suppose that Lincoln was 
not ambitious but little know the man. 
He had a natural instinct for leader- 
ship, and desired to earn and achieve po- 
litical promotion. No man ever cam- 
paigned more keenly or carefully than he. 
But he was not greedy for office. He 
was not vain. He did not think his per- 
sonal success more important than the 
triumph of the principles for which he 
contended, and these qualities often 

[38] 



FAILURES THAT SUCCEEDED 

proved insurmountable obstacles to his 
advancement. Thus, in 1855, ^vhen, 
after seven years' absence from politics, 
he re-entered the field to contest for the 
United States Senatorship, he allowed 
his devotion to })rinciples to ruin his 
chances, for, against the violent protest of 
his friends, he withdrew in favor of an 
anti-slavery Democrat when he saw that 
such action would insure the success of 
his cause. 

It is no wonder that there Avcre those 
who regarded biin as an iucil'cctive candi- 
date. To tlie oilice liunter, who is always 
more interested in his own advancement 
tlian in the furtherance of any cause, he 
must have seemed ([uite as futile as any 
of the disinterested reformers of the 
present day, for whose efforts botli "the 
man t)n h()rse])ack '' and "tlie man in the 
street " alike have an indulgent smile. 
Nevertheless, this ]){)litieian who would 
not think as others thought did not disap- 
])car from view, while those who echoed 
popular opinion and did what they were 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

told were soon forgotten. The people 
liked his courage, and he was finally se- 
lected as their champion against Douglas 
in the great contest for the Illinois Sena- 
torship which preceded the Civil War. 

It was a forlorn hope which w^as thus 
intrusted to Lincoln's charge, for his op- 
ponent was one of the most powerful and 
popular leaders of the Democracy, and 
that party was in control. Under such 
circumstances the ordinary candidate 
would have been extremely careful to 
speak no word w^hich could possibly of- 
fend, and otherwise curry favor with the 
voters. But Lincoln's genius for "bad 
politics " asserted itself at the very outset, 
for in his famous " house-divided-against- 
itself " speech, he declared that the Union 
could not continue to exist half slave and 
half free. INIost men knew in their hearts 
that this was true, but for a candidate to 
prophesy the dissolution of the Union 
was, at that crisis, almost courting de- 
feat. 

But Lincoln was undisturbed either by 

[40] 



FAILURES THAT SLXCEEDED 

the dismay of his friends or the elation of 
his foes. He knew that he was telling 
the truth, and that sooner or later the 
truth would prevail. Indeed, the fight 
had nr)t niucli more tlian hcgun hefore he 
was guilty of far greater rashness, for 
he determined to question Douglas and 
force him to define his position on the 
issues of the day. Mostly earnestly his 
adxlscrs warned Iiim tliat his ingenious 
op])()nent would certainly answer in such 
fashion as to win the ])eo})le of Illinois 
and insure the defeat of the Kcpu])lican 
ticket, l^it Lincoln ^\■as a leader ^v]lo 
refused to i)e led, and, knowing that 
what satisfied the j)eoj)le of Illinois 
would offend the slavery men elsewhere, 
lie deliheralely sacrificed his own chances 
of election hy drawing admissions from 
liis adversary which almost defeated him 
for the Senate, and whicli so offended 
the South that two years later she s])lit 
tlie Democracy to atoms rather than ac- 
ccj)t him as her candidate for the Presi- 
dency. 

[H] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

The immediate result, however, was a 
defeat for the anti-slavery champion, 
and a man of different calibre might 
easily have become discouraged and im- 
bittered by his repeated failures and re- 
buffs. Eut Lincoln did not care to 
achieve success at the expense of his 
cause, and after the most heart-breaking 
of his disappointments he was able to 
write : " I am glad I made the late race, 
and though I now sink out of view, I 
believe I have made some marks which 
will tell for the cause of civil liberty long 
after I am gonef* 

It was this spirit that in the end made 
his record a story of failures that suc- 
ceeded, and his example heartens those 
who, with high purpose, strive for princi- 
ples " in the dust of defeat." 



[42] 



FOR PUBLIC SERVANTS AND PRIVATE 
CITIZENS 

IT Avas Avith no fcclinf^ of elation or 
confidence that Lincoln found him- 
self President-elect. lie was not 
permit t((] to enjoy even a moment of his 
well-earned success. The ])eriod that in- 
tervened hetween his election and his in- 
auf^uration witnessed a spectacle which 
had no ])arall( I in the liistnry of the coun- 
try, and ^^hi(•h it is to he ]io})ed may re- 
main uni(|ue. A ^reat ])()htical ])arty 
had triumj)hcd at the })olls, hut at the first 
threats of (hssolvim^ the Union its sup- 
])ort('rs not only tendered ])ack the fruits 
of \ ictory, hut sou^dit peace from their 
o])ponents at any ])rice, and it is no won- 
der tliat the representatives of the South 
turni'd from them with distrust and dis- 
trust, l^erv form of weak-kneed com- 
[ 43 ] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

promise, from sentimental sop to abject 
surrender, had its nervous advocate, and 
Lincoln, watching the pitiful exhibition, 
might well have felt himself betrayed 
in the house of his friends. Yet he dis- 
played no personal resentment and ut- 
tered no complaints. Indeed, he sympa- 
thized^vith the anxiety which was disturb- 
ing the judgment of public men and ap- 
preciated the feeling of panic which 
wracked the general community. Fool- 
ish as were many of the measures urged 
to insure the national salvation, he neither 
despised their sponsors nor suspected 
their motives. Distrustful of his own 
abilities, he put himself in the place of 
those who felt that the world was out of 
joint, and, conscious of no mental supe- 
riority, weighed all their hopes and mis- 
givings. 

But Lincoln, though "modest to the 
point of timidity," was not timid. In the 
midst of wild rumors, nerve-shaking pos- 
sibilities, distracting advice and a babel 
of confusion ; with the Government fairly 

[44] 



THE CROWNING OF COURAGE 

tottering" and little help in sight, he found 
refuge and support in no virtues or tal- 
ents -svhich are denied the ordinary man, 
hut in that calmness and courage which 
every one uho is born into the world may 
acquire if he will. 

To tlie swarm of the distracted who 
buzzed ahout him, some urgini^ him to 
a(l()j)t tlicir policies, others to anticipate 
his own, and still others to send a mes- 
sage of reassurance and good will to the 
disaffected States, lie listened ])atiently, 
])ut gave no sign. Schooled to solve his 
own problems and do his own thinking, 
he did not feel hel|)Kss when confronted 
by new (jucstions, and refused to allow 
himself to be (li\-erted by considering 
conij)lieations wliieh had not yet occurred. 
I'rom his earliest youth he had lived one 
day at a time, and he saw no occasion to 
reverse the liabits of a life. Sure of the 
mandate that he had received from those 
who had elected him and fixed in his pur- 
pose ncitlier to betray nor misuse it, he 
reduced the prolilem to its simplest form, 

[45] 



A 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

as if for presentation to a jury of his 
peers, and faced the issue unafraid. 

Out of this stress and storm and of 
this modest but unterrified dehberation 
there came his first Inaugural address — a 
masterpiece of pleading to whose findings 
of fact no exception could be taken, and 
whose conclusions of law were never over- 
.ruled. Conscious of his own inexperi- 
ence and diffident of his own powers, he 
then surrounded himself by counselors 
whose training and ability had won the 
confidence of the nation, and to them he 
applied the simple tests which had long 
served him to gauge the characters and 
know the hearts of men. Without guile 
and with the sincere desire that the coun- 
try should benefit by the services of these 
men, he allowed them full scope in the 
performance of their several duties, even 
permitting encroachments on the dignity 
of his own office, and laying aside his 
personal feelings for the furtherance of 
the trust committed to his charge. 

It was no complaisant weakling, how- 
[46] 



THE CROWXIXG OF COURAGE 

ever, who thus effaced himself, but a man 
whose daily traininf^' in the work-a-day 
\N(n'ld had brought him into touch with 
all sorts and conditions of men — men 
wliose business it was to persuade or 
coerce others to their way of thinking, and 
who emj)I()yed every device from legiti- 
mate argument to brutal terrorizing to 
acc()ni|)lish their ends. His constant 
practice in the courts had thoroughly fa- 
miliarized him with the bulldozers and the 
"roarers" of his profession, and long be- 
fore he encountered them in his Cabinet 
he had met tlie j)r()t()typcs t)f Stanton 
and Seward and C'hasf. A President of 
diirercnt tem])er or other training would 
doubtless have (luarreled with those mas- 
tcrl'ul men or been hiinscll' torn apart by 
them in their struggles for su])remacy, 
but Lincoln handled them with a sure 
touch and made them work together for 
the nation. Thus when Stanton at- 
tempted to browbeat him at the very out- 
set of his career, he stood unmoved ])y his 
gustv outbursts and em])loved his fanati- 
[ i: ] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

cal egotism to the fullest possible advan- 
tage. When Chase played for the Pres- 
idency even as he sat at the Cabinet table, 
thinking that his masked moves would 
escape the attention of the country, 
" mast-fed " lawyer, he was skillfully 
checked and delicately manoeuvred into 
a resignation; and when Seward, whose 
temporary mania of grandeur once took 
the form of imagining himself a dictator 
clothed with power to avert the civil perils 
by instigating a foreign war, he was not 
only tactfully disillusioned, but his repu- 
tation was protected by the magnani- 
mous silence of the man he had endeav- 
ored to supplant. 

But while he was thus taking the meas- 
ure of his associates, Lincoln was slowly 
but surely mastering the innumerable du- 
ties of his office, meeting its responsibil- 
ities as they developed, and familiarizing 
himself with his mighty powers. Inger- 
soll has said that *' it is easy for the weak 
to be gentle ; most people can bear adver- 
sity; but if you wish to know what a man 

[48] 



THE CROWNING OF COURAGE 

really is, give liim power. That is the 
supreme test." I^incoln was not afraid 
to use his power, hut lie never abused it. 
Though invested, as President, with al- 
most supreme authority, he never forgot 
its source; he never ceased to he one of 
the peo])lc, and the exercise of his jirerog- 
atives, instead of making him arrogant 
and careless of the rights of others, only 
added to his burden of care. 

•To relieve the constant strain of that 
])iir(](n hr relied on humor, and liis op])o- 
ncnts called him a ii'ifhr: to sim])lify mo- 
mentous (juestions he sought homely ])ar- 
allels, and the world conehided that he 
lacked ca])acity to gras]) afVairs of state; 
to humnni'/e ollieial action lie enij)l()yed 
droll anecdotes and illustrations, and the 
soU'mn and the ])om])ous jiroclaimcd him 
a bufi'oon. .Absolutely frc^e of affectation 
himself, he scandalized and embarrassed 
tliose whose dignity ^\•as only surface 
deep, but they who fancied themselves 
])rivileged to indulge in undue liberties at 
his ex])ense did not make the error twice. 
[ K9 ] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

Slow in action, calm in danger, sincere in 
thought, kindly in feeling, wise in coun- 
sel, this devoted servant of the State 
guided the nation to safety and then 
found rest from the labors that had worn 
and saddened him for five long, stormy 
years. 

Political passions and prejudices often 
afford strange reading in the light of 
history's verdict. Americans who are 
taught to believe that their public men, 
whom they themselves elect to office, 
become lost to honor and dead to shame 
almost from the moment they are clothed 
wdth power, can learn a lesson by 
remembering that many of those who 
sought to guide popular opinion in the 
early days of the Republic denounced 
Washington as a traitor, and that vol- 
umes of contemporaneous libel could be 
collected to prove that Lincoln was some- 
thing worse. 

Certainly there never was a human 
being more maligned, more ridiculed or 
more unsparingly accused and condemned 

[50] 



THE CROWNING OF COURAGE 

than Abraham Lincoln. Ingenuity ex- 
hausted itself in efforts to insult him; 
partisan malice and personal spite, both 
North and South, shamelessly contended 
to sting him with abuse; vilification 
strove to pillory him at every turn. But 
no savage word ever escaped his lips. 
The iron did not enter into his soul. He 
sought neither vindication nor revenge. 
Through the miasma of hatred and dis- 
trust he saw the dawning of his hopes. 
Before he died " he heard the hisses turn 
to cheers." 

Lincoln was a great Executive, but he 
was a greater man. He left his country 
the better for his having been in it. That 
— his greatest achievement — is not be- 
yond the power of the humblest in the 
land, and every American who strives to 
make his part of the country — no matter 
how small that part may be — the better 
for his presence, crowns Lincoln's cour- 
age and shares his glory. 



[51] 



FOR MEN OF COMMON MOLD 

IN seeking to interpret the careers of 
famous men, it is usually possible, 
and often not difficult, to trace out 
some dominating influence or discover 
some determining factor in their lives 
which reveals the secret of their success. 
The result, however, is rarely of any prac- 
tical benefit to humanity. The circum- 
stances that give the impulse to such men 
or serve to mold them are not, as a rule, 
within the experience of the ordinary in- 
dividual. They are exceptional, extra- 
ordinary, or hopelessly unique. The man 
who awaits some marvelous crisis in his 
life or expects some intervention of Prov- 
idence, such as favored this or that his- 
toric character, deceives himself with false 
hopes. All the chances are against a 



THE HARVESTING OF TRIFLES 

repetition of the conditions which pro- 
duce any particular hero. 

But with Lincoln the case is very dif- 
ferent. It is not possible to place a fin- 
ger on any one fact in his history and 
declare with certainty that that was the 
inciting cause of his success, or to demon- 
strate that any special chain of events 
made him what he was. He was sub- 
jected to no great inspiring influence; no 
wonderful experience determined his life. 
His career was not a climacteric awaken- 
ing — it was a natural development. 

If this be true, it practically eliminates 
the distinction between Lincoln the man 
and Lincoln the President, and disposes 
of the claim that his achievements as the 
head of the nation were due to the sudden 
enlargement of extraordinary latent pow- 
ers. To some this offers the only rational 
explanation of his statesmanship. Des- 
pite the fact that he was over fifty years 
of age when he became President, and 
that his record w^as, up to that time, 
largely due to qualities which are part of 

[53] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

the common heritage of all his country- 
men, many of his eulogists cannot believe 
that these same qualities served to effect 
his historic results. No man, they con- 
tend, whose equipment was really on a 
plane with his fellows could possibly 
have accomplished what he did. Masters 
of men, it is asserted, are not molded 
from ordinary clay, and it is incredible 
that the great logician, resourceful diplo- 
matist, and guiding spirit of the Civil 
War lacked the intellectual endowments 
of a genius. 

Nevertheless, if Lincoln's achievements 
be carefully examined, they will, in the 
final analysis, be found to rest upon moral 
qualities rather than mental attributes, 
and those moral qualities are all plainly 
discernible in the life training which 
fitted him for his great task. To assume 
that he suddenly developed brilliancy and 
revealed superhuman endowments at the 
call of high office is to ignore the man in 
the making and put a needless tax upon 
credulity. What was there in his services 

[54] 



THE HARVESTING OF TRIFLES 

to the State that demands such a sacrifice 
of probabihty? The magnitude of his re- 
sults must not be permitted to exagger- 
ate the means by which he effected them. 
The preservation of the Union and the 
suppression of slavery were not accom- 
plished by an intellectual tour de force, 
and the great crises of the period were 
not met by masterly strokes of genius. 
It was Lincoln's daily example of reso- 
lution, fortitude and patience that pre- 
vailed during the life-and-death struggle 
of the nation. It was the forbearance of 
the hour — the tact of the moment that 
molded the event. 

During his whole life, prior to the 
Presidency, he relied on the influence of 
simple virtues and their all-conquering 
pow^r, and his handling of public ques- 
tions, great and small, during his offi- 
cial career, displays the same traits of 
mind and character. The country lawyer 
whose sense of justice restrained his rapa- 
cious clients was the same man who, 
against his personal inclination and the 

[55] 



LINXOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

heaviest of moral pressures, resisted every 
effort of the Abohtionists to deprive the 
South of her property without due proc- 
ess of law, and it w^as not until every 
legal expedient had been exhausted that 
he consented, as military commander, to 
issue the Emancipation Proclamation. 
The writer who produced the masterpiece 
of Gettysburg was not a literary genius, 
but one whose lips spoke what his heart 
suggested, and whose human sympathy 
and genuine humility took that immortal 
form. In like manner all the episodes of 
his Administration may be examined 
without disclosing anything which he ac- 
complished by virtue of gifts of which 
the ordinary mortal need despair. 

What were the forces by which he 
effected what brainier men could not 
achieve? He was unselfish. — Is that an 
impossible virtue? He was simple and 
modest. — Is talent required for that? 
He was sympathetic and considerate of 
others. — No college or school teaches 
that. He was sincere in thought and 
[56] 



THE HARVESTING OF TRIFLES 

action. — Xo dramatic crisis brought this 
about. He was honest, cared little for 
money and much for honor. — ^Dare any- 
one admit that this is beyond him? He 
was deliberate in judgment and long 
suffering in patience. — Those are not in- 
tellectual achievements. He was tem- 
perate in word and deed. — That is a 
matter of self-control. 

His triumph was the perfecting of 
qualities which all men may command. 
Were every citizen of this broad land to 
develop the best that lies within him, 
Lincoln would be a type and not an 
example. 

Of course, if some great, striking 
event transformed Lincoln from a man 
of common mold into a god, the story of 
his life has merely a dramatic or pictur- 
esque interest for ordinary mortals. But 
nothing of the sort occurred. The events 
w^hich shaped him were the everyday hap- 
penings of the dull, trivial round — the 
irksome details of routine. 

Those who fret because they seem to 
[57] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

be wasting time over insignificant tasks, 
or despair of gaining anything from 
them, or are discouraged because they 
are not progressing fast enough, or are 
not receiving what they regard as "a 
fair chance in life," have something to 
learn from the pages of Lincoln's life. 
It was a wise as well as a subtle philos- 
opher who declared that "the time best 
spent is the time we waste." 

Doubtless Lincoln thought he was 
wasting time as a farmhand in the fields ; 
as a clerk in Off utt's store ; as the unsuc- 
cessful proprietor of a grocery; and at 
the end of his term in Congress it is well 
known that he regarded the years he had 
devoted to politics as time thrown away. 
Yet the years spent in the open air gave 
him the constitution of iron without which 
his great work could never have been 
accomplished; his experience as a clerk 
earned him the tribute rather than the 
nickname of "Honest Abe"; his incur- 
sion into the business world tested and 
tempered his honor, and the knowledge 

[58] 



THE HARVESTING OF TRIFLES 

gained of local politics contributed essen- 
tially to his career. There was not an 
experience in his entire life which may 
fairly be said to have proved a waste of 
time — there was scarcely anything which 
entered into or even touched it which he 
did not sooner or later turn to some 
account. 

During his career as President there 
were times when a highly cultured man 
with little or no real knowledge of the 
people would surely have brought disaster 
upon himself; again and again he utilized 
homely trifles of daily living which had 
sunk into his being and with w^hich he 
had never consciously charged his mind. 
All his failures and disappointments 
bore rich harvests. No career ever more 
clearly demonstrated the value of " the 
little things that are not worth while," 
or better revealed the undreamed of pos- 
sibilities that lie within the humblest ex- 
perience. 

Lincoln contributed some wonderful 
pages to history, but other men have done 
[59] 



LINCOLN'S LEGACY OF INSPIRATION 

that and the world, as a whole, has not 
greatty benefited. He won a place 
among the mightiest rulers of the earth, 
but others have done that whose names 
have become mere memory-tests, or whose 
deeds are chiefly recorded on blood- 
stained battlefields. He did much to pre- 
serve the Union and abolish slavery, but 
generals and soldiers and a vast army of 
simple citizens supported him in that 
w^ork, and are entitled to share in the 
glory. 

It is neither Lincoln the President — 
nor Lincoln the Master of JNIen — nor 
Lincoln the Saviour of the State, who is 
winning the hearts of more and more 
Americans each year. All that history 
could tell of the President was told many 
years ago. It is Lincoln the man who 
is inspiring his fellows to-day — the man 
within touch of all the lowly of heart. 
This is he who, of all Americans, is 
" leaving his impress upon eternity." 



[60] 



OCT 19 1909 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





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